Two Travelers and a Big Tree

Once, two men traveled on a dusty and rough road that had no trees on its sides. They were walking to a distant village during daylight to attend a wedding feast.

The summer sun was so hot that they were sweating a lot.

They looked for a shady tree for shelter from the sun. After some time, they saw a big old tree with thick, green leaves and branches spread far and wide like a big umbrella. They made the tree a shelter, put their small bundles on the ground and stretched themselves out in the cool shadow of the tree. They felt relieved and rested for a while, talking about the wedding feast.

After about an hour, one of the travelers said to his friends, “Look! What a useless ugly old tree! So big and yet it hears no fruits at all!”

On hearing this, the tree felt insulted. Angrily, it yelled, “You, ungrateful man! You are enjoying my cool shadow and using it for a shelter, yet you call me useless and ugly! Can there be a more wretched creature than you!”

Feeling scared that a tree could talk, the two men ran away in horror.